Malaysiakini Letters: Terminators in Afghanistan are Compassionless

Also, one of the most disturbing trends of present day warfare is the use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and pilotless aircraft drones.

These are a nightmare to those wishing peace on this earth.

Such weapons actually promote war because they make wars less painful to the aggressor because their human casualties will always be nil.

Wars will be so much simpler now that they will be conducted by robots. Unfortunately while military casualties may go down, civilian casualties will go exponentially up as robots unlike mankind, have no mercy and compassion.

Perhaps better phrasing would have helped, to emphasize the detachment the operators have controlling their aerial death machines from miles away?

Honestly, in a theater of non-standard war like Afghanistan or Iraq, the chances of a manned aircraft like the A-10 Thunderbolt II or Lockheed AC-130 being downed and thus ‘painful to the aggressor’ are similar to the chances of a UAV being downed – i.e. close to nil.